WIIW

Well it is Wednesday, so what on Earth do you think this is?

Spotted Sun Orchid

With the official start of winter just a few days away (and the first mountain frosts already here) I am already longing for the spring when beauties like this come out.

Piccie of the day

My piccie of the day is of a ruined engine house and tailings in the Victorian Goldfields

Sidetracked

Well despite a change for the better in the weather Deb and I parked work on the cottage and headed down the coast to Coffs Harbour to resupply.

With the days getting shorter (it's dark soon after 5:00 now) we caught the evening on our journey home.

I had to stop to catch some of the last light reflected in the Bellinger River

Then just down the road I halted again to catch the sun setting behind the mountains where we now live.

But the treats had not finished, because once we were back over 3,000 feet the moon popped over the horizon. These are the same mountains as the last piccie but from the other side.
 
And just a final close up of the moon

Everybody is Half Right

Well not surprisingly everybody who put in a guess for  WIIW guessed something along the lines of “bolt” or “screw” .

They are bolts (or screws) so everybody has scored 50%.

Why 50%?
Because no one was close on what the bolts are fixed to!
Here they are.
Bolts on the front of one of the old farm Land-Rovers.  When I say old I mean it, this one is a 1963 model. These bolts are to carry a spare wheel on the bonnet (hood)
 I took this through the windscreen on the track between my Mum's house and our cottage.
This section lies between the cottage and the main road.

You can see the effects of the recent rain.
Hence a 4X4.
As a by the by, this is the road I will be using to go to work once we move in.

Two wheel drives are OK on the track in the dry. but in the wet four wheel drive is the way to go.

Speaking of the cottage, last week end was dry so we continued with the cladding.
First I continued along the bottom of the east wall.

Then along the west wall.

Up around the kitchen window on the west side.

And between the kitchen and the lounge room. As I have said before the little tank stand is for the hot water system.

Hot water is provided (will be once it is reconnected)  from a wood fired slow combustion stove. The wood is dead timber cut off the property, free and environmentally neutral.

 Continuing on around the bathroom window.
As you can see the place is fairly small. But given it is just the two of us these days, I think we will manage.

 And finally more of the east wall.

Progress is not quite as fast as I would like. The weather has been a bugger (as we Aussies would say).
Rain a fortnight ago, a clear weekend and it is raining again today.
Frustrating!

An answer and WIIW

The answer to my odd question in my last post "when would something that is "Supreme" not be at the top of the pile?"
The answer is contained in the piccie. Supreme is not at the top of the pile when it is a supreme court in Oz.
 
So how does it come to be in Oz that a "High Court" is above a "Supreme Court"?

Well Oz has no less than nine "supreme courts" and one High Court of Australia which sits above them.
The reason: six of the Supreme Courts were once the highest court in each of the colonies that federated in 1901 to form the Commonwealth of Australia. Now each of those is the highest court of the states formed from those colonies (eg Victoria, the other three are the "supreme" courts of three of our territories.)
Oz (like the USA and Germany) is a federal state and that odd hierarchy of courts is an artefact of that history.

Now to this week's what is it Wednesday: what on Earth do you think this is?
 

Domes and Delay

Well it has taken me an absurd amount of time to get back to posting.
 As I have said too often recently life is busy.
The day job and the rebuild are taking up more hours than I have most days and the blog is what has given.
After the WIIW of a fortnight ago I thought I would try a double bluff so I posted this image for WIIW.

But my attempt to deceive was blown out of the water by the first guess.

Jennifer (AKA Old Kitty) guessed:"Is that a dome? Like St Paul's dome!??"

Well it isn't as grand as St Paul's but you have hit a hole in one! 100%

Linda G said: "I was thinking some sort of dome, too, so it's probably something weird, like an extremely odd turtle shell, because you're tricky that way."

I guess that earns 80% because of the sheer cynicism you are exhibiting :-)

Marcy guessed: "Yep, dome would be my guess, like the kind on an observatory."

A dome it is - 100%

Susan said: "Let's see, judging by last week's pic, this one must be a close-up of an exotic tree. Yeah, that's it. The little-known, but highly sought after Australian Geodesic Mostus Rarus.
Or not. I got nothing. It kinda looks like part of a dome, so that must mean it's something entirely different."

Well I have to pay your mock Latin for Rare Dome, so I guess that earns 80%

So where is this dome?
I give you The Supreme Court of Victoria (glimpsed between its more modern neighbours).

A question to leave you with: when would something that is "Supreme" not be at the top of the pile?
 

Al Tries again

Well no one got last week's WIIW.
Generally I seem to score when the WIIW image looks like something entirely different to what it actually is.
So without further ado: What on Earth do you think this might be?

Banksia flower

"Just" a piccie of the day, this one taken at Mount Dandenong a few years ago

Homestead

My piccie of the day is a ruined farmhouse in a canola field

Rain

Well work on the cottage has been brought to a screeching halt this weekend by persistent rain.

Looking on the bright side it has made me have the weekend off. Which is probably a good thing given I have been running myself pretty ragged with both the day job and the rebuild.

Taking advantage of the rain Deb and I drove to our nearest town Dorrigo, which lies about 40 minutes away.

I mentioned a little while ago that there are meant to be 200 waterfalls nearby. Just outside Dorrigo is the Dangar Falls.

Sheltering my tripod under an umbrella I managed to capture some shots.
Most, like this one, were spoiled by the drifting rain spattering the camera lens.

But with determined wiping and quick shooting I managed to get a few I was happy with before retreating back to the car.

Tessellated Pavement, Tasmania

Well this week's WIIW stumped everyone.

When I said look closely as a clue I was referring to the grey spots. They are shell fish.
As much as this looks at first glance to be tiles or cement paving; it isn't.

At Pirate's Bay in Tasmania is the "Tessellated Pavement"
 It is a natural shelf of sedimentary rock that has been eroded into these elaborate patterns


In some parts it looks almost unremarkable

In others it looks like amazingly artificial blocks piled layer on layer.

 All in all a remarkable location

Jetty

Well my WIIW image of yesterday looks like it will earn me some points!
No one is even close!

 As a clue look really closely!

My piccie of the day is of a jetty on the Bellarine Peninsula

Oops It's Wednesday

When I staggered home this evening I happily posted what is going to have to be seen as a bonus piccie of the day.

Then as I helped Deb begin to cook our evening meal, my brain went in to gear and I realised it is Wednesday.
So with out further ado: What on Earth do you think this might be?

Pacific Grey Heron (and the Pacific Ocean)

Just a piccie of the day tonight. This guy was hunting crabs along the shore in southern NSW.

Autumn Colours

My piccie of the day features a splash of colour because it is that time of year down this way.

Of course none of the trees in this piccie are Oz natives, all are what we call "exotics" (except a few in the distant background).

I guess most of my readers come from places where colours like this are normal.
So how does it feel to come from somewhere "exotic"?

Cottage update

Well it has been nearly three weeks since I posted an update on progress on the cottage.

Over the past three weekends I have:

Torn Out the side wall of the kitchen.

The small tank you can see here is for rainwater, for drinking.The rest of our domestic water comes from a spring across the valley.

Torn out the back wall of the kitchen;

Re-framed the kitchen walls for larger windows;

Put in a new back window

And a side window.

The wood-fired combustion stove is just out of frame to the right. We plan to have benches under the windows, the kitchen sink will ultimately be under the back window, and a gas cook top (for hot weather) under the window to the right.

Then finally, just so we could get a feel for what it will look like, I have put up our first sheet of cladding. For those of you who don't know it is a corrugated steel product called "Colorbond".
Corrugated iron has been a traditional building product in Oz. 
This is the modern version, it should last for 50+ years and never need maintenance. It is fairly quick to work with,
By the way the colour is called "Ironstone" 
And Lilli managed to sneak into this piccie to say hi.

Sunset from the Cottage

Well I have been burning the candle at both ends for weeks now.

I am working at my new day job 4 days a week. That takes me about 70 minutes drive each way to a regional centre.
The other three days I am working hard on the cottage.
Things are still progressing well, and the rain having dried up for the past two weeks has really helped. I hope to post a proper update on the cottage in the next few days (time allowing).

In the mean time here is a piccie that shows (one of the reasons) why we love our mountain retreat so much. A sunset taken from just outside the back door.

Linda cracks it again (almost)

Well this week's WIIW didn't cause too many problems.

No one was exactly right, but Linda G was in the right area.

Linda G saw the image and said: "Considering all the rain you were blogging about, I'd hazard a guess that it's the top of a parking meter in a flood."

It is flood waters, and I can see why you'd say a parking meter, the curved shape kind of fits.
So I guess that earns 70%.

The other guesses kind of followed in Linda's wake (pun intended)

Marcy said: "I thought it was something on a boat but really I don't know. Linda's guess sounds much better than mine".
Yours isn't bad 50%.

Susan said: "Lordy, I sure HOPE that isn't the top of a parking meter. Definitely water (duh!) but what else, I don't know. My better half said maybe a sump pump?"
 It is nearly as bad as a parking meter. But not a sump pump 50%

Misha said: "Hahaha I was going to say the same thing as Linda and the others"
I guess that is 50% too.

SO here it is, as Linda guessed floodwater, but a park bench not a parking meter.
 

What is it Wednesday

Just time for a quick What is it Wednesday?

So what on Earth do you think this is?